In February 2024, I received an email from Christian Mericle of High Street Church in Tucumcari, New Mexico, pointing me to the high school era Scrapbook of Opal Avarilla Brooks Rue, which had been created by my grandmother as a young woman. Christian had generously placed scans on his Google Photos account (see link to view the full book).
He explained: "The album was purchased from an eBay seller by Gary Gholson, who donated it to our collection because of the Tucumcari photos. If you’re interested in the seller’s name, I can find that for you," and asked if I had more "Tucumcari-area photos or other history you would be willing to share..."
I replied that I was curious as to the seller’s identity, recalling that my grandmother showed me this particular album when it was still in her possession about 1977 at her home in Livonia Michigan, during a visit on my way to college in a western state. Although she gifted me several other contemporary albums and papers at that time (which I also still have), I recalled, she told me that this one had special meaning and she was keeping it. She allowed me to take the album to the local public library at the time to make rather poor-quality a black and white photocopy, which I still (2024) have in my basement.
In response to the email, I felt pleased to know that local historians in her area had come across my grandmother's missing album and were preserving it, but the email did leave me curious how one of my grandmother's most valued personal albums found its way from her possession to Ebay. It had been my assumption that my uncle, Jim Rue, who provided close and loving support and care to his mother in her last years, probably had the missing photo album. However, that was not true. Someone else may have come into possession of it at one of the facilities where she was treated for leukemia and perhaps it ended up at a thrift shop before landing on Ebay. According to Christian, who found me on Google, via related genealogical information on this website, contacted me to share the album via this link, the seller was from San Juan Capistrano, California. I'm just glad that the album landed in a place that it is being preserved and shared with interested historians and genealogists. How it got there may remain a mystery.
A few months after this, in May 2024, Christian Mericle emailed me with this offer: "I spoke with the gentleman who donated Opal’s album to us. While having such an item in our collection is a privilege, we wanted to give you a chance to bring it back home to your family. If you’re interested, please let me know what you feel would be a fair donation."
Regarding its plans for the future archiving of the album, Christian Mericle introduced his group as Historic Tucumcari, as "...a fledgling historical group associated with a local church. The church’s vision for the program is to serve the community, not use it to proselytize. Unfortunately, we do not have the facilities to provide high-level archival care (e.g., climate-controlled vaults). Tucumcari’s oldest and most firmly established historical organization, Tucumcari Historical Society/Tucumcari Historical Museum, also falls short on this front. As to the album’s availability for researchers, it is available for viewing (currently, by appointment only)."
With gratitude for the digital images of the album that have been shared here.
